Box Score Rasheem Dunn's two free throws with five seconds left lifted St. John's to a 70-68 victory over West Virginia in a Saturday afternoon Big 12/Big East Battle game at Madison Square Garden.
 
The last time the Mountaineers were looking to begin a season 8-0 in 2016, they lost to Virginia in the Garden.
 
Today, their quest to go 8-0 also ended in the Garden primarily because of turnovers, point-blank misses and another poor performance at the free throw line.
 
"We got a little giddy with being 7-0," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "We didn't take things as serious as we had taken things. We've got good kids but I know this, we're going to get five balls that don't bounce because we've got to learn how to play without dribbling the ball so much."
 
West Virginia turned the ball over a season-high 22 times, shot just 41.8 percent from inside the arc and missed seven of its 12 free throw attempts, yet still had an opportunity to win the game at the end.
 
The Mountaineers (7-1) erased a nine-point St. John's lead by holding the Red Storm without a field goal over the remaining 4:28 of the game. Their final field goal was made by Josh Roberts on a stick-back basket to give them a 68-59 advantage.
 
Derek Culver cut into the lead with a follow-up basket, and a Taz Sherman 3 got it down to four with 2:05 to go. Then a Miles McBride steal led to a Culver opportunity near the basket to make it a two-point game.
 
The sophomore forward was fouled by Roberts but could only get one of two attempts to fall through the cylinder - one of four misses on the afternoon from the 82-percent free throw shooter. 
 
Another steal by McBride led to Sean McNeil's 3 in transition to tie the game at 68 with 1:13 remaining.
 
West Virginia had an opportunity to take the lead on its next offensive possession when Nick Rutherford missed a layup, but Sherman's open baseline 16-footer didn't drop and Culver momentarily grabbed the ball before having it knocked out of his hands by Dunn.
 
"We get a rebound with 16 seconds to go and lose it because our player puts his head down and tries to dribble," Huggins said. "That's not the one play that killed us, but there was a whole bunch like it that did."
 
With St. John's in possession of the ball, coach Mike Anderson called timeout with 16 seconds to go and when play resumed, Dunn made a stumbling drive to the basket where he ran into Culver holding his spot with one arm in the air.
 
The baseline official whistled Culver for the foul, his fifth, putting Dunn at the line for two free throws. He made both, leaving West Virginia with five seconds to either tie it with a basket or win it with a 3.

"I thought our last defensive stance was pretty good," Huggins said. "We don't get many breaks, for whatever reason."
 
Following WVU's last timeout, what the Mountaineers ended up getting was a 3-point try from McBride on the move but he wasn't able to get it to go down. Huggins thought there was more than enough time to get something at the basket and perhaps draw a foul as Dunn did.
 
"After they got a call I figure, 'Okay, we're going to take it to the basket and we're going to get a call' and we pull up and shoot a jump shot with plenty of time to get to the rim," Huggins said, noting that his team had two "horrible" practices leading up to today's game.
 
McNeil came off the bench to lead West Virginia with 13 points while Culver finished with 12 points and a game-high 18 rebounds.
 
Now, West Virginia goes back to the drawing board with a pair of home games coming up against Austin Peay on Thursday night and Nicholls on Saturday before going back out on the road to play at Youngstown State on Dec. 21.
 
St. John's, which improves to 8-2 in its first season under Anderson, got a game-high 17 points from L.J. Figueroa, all in the first half.
 
Dunn added 13 and Rutherford finished with 11.
 
The Red Storm shot just 32.9 percent from the floor but they did make all but five of their 27 free throw attempts.
 
The 22 turnovers they forced resulted in 22 points.
 
"You can't just catch the ball and put your head down and dribble the ball …," Huggins said. "Twenty two turnovers … and everybody shared in it."
 
The Big East has now won the first three games in its challenge with the Big 12 as an undermanned Georgetown team was able to remove Oklahoma State from the ranks of the undefeated with a seven-point victory in Stillwater and DePaul defeated Texas Tech earlier this week.
 
Kansas State and Marquette will continue the Big 12/Big East Battle later tonight.